The white marble fireplace, in neoclassical style, has a richly carved frieze, supported by two pairs of fluted columns, surmounted by composite capitals. The mouth of the fireplace is framed by a frame with plant racemes.
The frieze has a bas-relief decoration with military trophies on the sides in accordance with the decorative theme of the eighteenth-century vault and, in the center, a reproduction of the mosaic depicting the "Battle of Issus", found in Pompeii and now exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. .
The revival of the archaeological find testifies to the interest of the Bourbons for the antiquities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, whose excavations were started by King Charles. The mosaic, of large proportions (582x313 cm), dating back to about 100 BC, was found on 24 October 1831 in the house of the Faun, in the pavement of the exedra that separates the two peristyles of the domus. The modernization works of the Royal Palace, started in 1838, are therefore inspired by the discoveries of contemporary excavations.
The mosaic depicts the famous battle of Alexander the Great against Darius III of Persia, which took place in Issus (Turkey) in 333 BC, which ended with the defeat of the Persian army. As in the mosaic, the frieze of the Royal Palace shows the Macedonian leader (today headless) on horseback, in the act of chasing the Persian emperor on the chariot, but facing the enemy with his spear pointed. Between the two protagonists, a tangle of spears, soldiers and horses, framed by arboreal wings.
All ongoing and upcoming exhibitions where there are works by